


"Dreams Teach"

by Princess of Geeks (Princess)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Character Study, Domestic, Episode Related, Episode: s04e09 Scorched Earth, Episode: s04e17 Absolute Power, Friendship, M/M, pre slash, season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-16
Updated: 2010-03-16
Packaged: 2017-10-08 00:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/71000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princess/pseuds/Princess%20of%20Geeks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and Daniel take a drive after work, and talk a little about the events of "Absolute Power."</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Dreams Teach"

**Author's Note:**

> Another early one that I think has held up very well. I'm really proud of this one too.

When Daniel emerged from the mountain, the sun was setting and Jack was watching it, arms folded, leaning against the hood of Daniel's car. The sky was spectacular; orange and pink beams piercing brightly-outlined, silvery clouds; impossible, like a Moran painting. Too over-the-top to be real -- except Nature had full authority to be utterly over the top.

"Uh, hi." Daniel's car keys jingled.

"Hi. I'm parked over there. Would you mind...." Jack pointed by jerking his head. His footsteps crunched on the gravel and Daniel followed him, not thinking. The day had left him "thinked out." Which sounded kind of like something Jack would say. Come to think of it.

Jack had his hands in his pockets and he slouched as he walked, as if he were tired. Daniel watched him, chin down, brow wrinkled.

Out at the intersection of the complex road with the highway, Jack turned up the mountain, away from the city and their way home, pushing the truck, winding and climbing. Darkness fell, and Jack kept driving, and Daniel gradually accepted that it would be a while before he got to bed, and gave up his vague anticipation about what he'd planned to read at home. Jack stopped at a convenience store at a deserted interchange and bought a couple of corn dogs, which he ate as he drove, no mustard or anything. Daniel sipped at the coffee Jack brought him, but he didn't finish it. Jack's cupholders were immaculate and empty, but Daniel rested the half full styrofoam between his legs and just let it cool. He wondered if Jack would drive all night. They'd never actually done that, but the night Jack had learned that the NID had threatened General Hammond's grandchildren, they'd come close. Daniel watched the highway stripes, ethereal and glowing white in the halogen headlights. Then he watched the guardrails slide by; guardrails or rocks. Occasionally he looked at Jack's ear. Jack's sunglasses hung around his neck.

"You gonna tell me what you dreamed?" The words fell into the silence like pebbles into a pool. Yes, definitely Shifu had ... rubbed off on him.

Daniel took a deep breath and told him. When he was done, there was silence for a while.

Daniel said, "Absolute power," and paused, and finished the aphorism, "...corrupts absolutely," at the same time Jack said, "...goes better with Coke."

Daniel, in spite of himself, chuckled. He let his head drop against the cushioned headrest. He wondered if Jack was going to drive clear to Salida, or where he would, in fact, turn around when he finally did. He wondered why Shifu had had them come to Abydos to meet him, and if he had soaked up something of Sha're from Khasuf or from the sands themselves. He opened his mouth to ask if Jack was going to drive clear to Salida, but then closed it again without speaking.

After a while, Jack said, "Daniel, --" and there was that reassuring tone in his voice that Daniel thought might make him do something he was sure to regret later, so he launched a preemptive strike, and winced as soon as he put it in those mental terms.

"It doesn't freak me out that I imagined that you came to my house to shoot me if you found it necessary, Jack. It's entirely reasonable that you would trade my life for the population of Moscow. Especially, if I were the one -- wiping it out."

Jack relaxed. Daniel felt it. "Besides," Jack said, "I actually did it already once for real."

"Well, yeah. There's that."

They were silent again, remembering the Enkarans. Daniel actually found those memories a whole bunch more entertaining than thinking about how good it had felt to destroy Moscow and to teach those pitiful bastards in Washington a lesson at the same time. He was glad he had studied up on the Zen koans before he'd encountered Shifu again. He wondered if the lizard-like aliens with the Phillip Glass music had had koans.

"So your lesson was to give up on the whole revenge thing."

Daniel smiled. "I guess you could say that."

"What would you say?" Jack's voice was deceptively light. It made Daniel tense.

"You know the argument -- fighting fire with fire." Daniel could have added something about self-righteousness, self-deception, and self-pity, but he felt too tired to talk any more.

Jack's turn to sigh. Daniel realized he was still smiling and stopped. It felt supremely fake. The cab of the truck was going to be full of sighs soon, floating around like little Ghostbusters demons, the expelled embodiment of regret. Or something. Daniel wondered what Jack had to regret tonight. Daniel didn't think Jack had done anything recently that qualified. Daniel watched Jack's profile, weirdly illuminated by the green lights of the dash, and thought about what he'd left out of his story; the part about how his Goa'uld-educated self, polished to a high gloss, like the blue-blooded graduate of a Yankee finishing school, had efficiently sent Teal'c to his death, had skillfully driven a wedge between Jack and Sam, had elegantly manipulated Jack into his bed and then wounded him as Daniel suspected only he could, in that future or any other, by brutally and cleanly kicking him out of it. Daniel stopped himself from sighing again. He had to hold his breath for a second to do it.

"There was even a dream within a dream, in which I got to destroy Apophis. Painfully; directly. Personally."

"And you enjoyed it."

Daniel didn't bother to answer.

They were approaching a scenic overlook, and Jack slowed and turned in. The view was north. All the clouds had blown away as they drove. Cassiopeia was poised at the horizon, and Daniel lifted his eyes to the bears. Polaris shone steadily, the stars of Ursa Minor much brighter now than they could ever be in town. They twinkled plainly, strung along beside the pole star. The tale hadn't taken as long to tell as Daniel had feared it would. He had almost thought they would be in Canada before he finished, but they were barely fifty miles, as the crow flies, from his condominium. Jack killed the engine and they sat there, looking at the sky. Daniel felt a warm weight on his shoulder; the weight of Jack's hand. Daniel exhaled, noisily, and leaned just a little into the touch, just a slight shift of his weight toward Jack.

Eventually Jack took his hand away and started the engine and headed back. Earlier Daniel had been enjoying the swoop of the mountain roads, and he always enjoyed watching Jack push the truck along them, but now the downhills were making him feel a little sick. He remembered he'd forgotten to eat dinner. He was startled when Jack spoke.

"I didn't want to kill you in that ship. I was pissed that you beamed yourself up like that, but I kept thinking surely you'd pull something out of your ass.... I'd do what I do, and you'd do what you do, and .... doo be doo be doo." Jack pursed his lips, like he'd drunk some especially sour cherry-limeade.

"I know." Daniel couldn't not smile.

"You always hold out for the win-win, you know? That's what you do."

Daniel stirred, feeling like he needed to do something with his hands, but there was nothing for him to do. He picked at the rim of his coffee cup. He wished he were driving. He picked at his seatbelt. "I'm very flattered that you think that, Jack, but it's not true."

"So that's what you learned in your dream. That and the "do not engage" stuff."

Daniel was quiet a minute. How the fuck did Jack do that, and how the fuck did Daniel keep forgetting that Jack could do that. _You never were that bright.... No._ "That's what I learned. Among other things." Jack hadn't looked over at him once since they had turned for home. The road looped away, down and down and down, and straightened out. Lights came up around them. The streets of the Springs, an orderly grid. They pulled up in Jack's driveway.

"I'm crashing here?"

"Easier than picking you up again in the morning. You mind?"

Daniel didn't answer; he got out and locked his own door, even though Jack had the remote on his keychain, and walked up the sidewalk. He could hear Jack's quiet steps behind him. Even in boots, the man was quiet. He stood aside, and Jack let them in.

Daniel folded his coat over the pass-through shelf, and Jack went in the kitchen and turned on the stove hood light and got a drink of water from the sink. His raised eyebrows asked Daniel if Daniel wanted anything, and Daniel shook his head.

"So you let me in there with a gun. You knew I'd shoot you, and yet, you let me in." Daniel had to look down. He studied his shoe tips and the pattern of the flooring under them.

"I was absolutely certain I could outsmart you. Just like it was a chess game; I'd foreseen every move. But... all the same, I also wanted you to be there; I really did. I had a -- I had a soft spot for you even when I'd turned into a --" Daniel stopped the rush his words had become and looked up. Jack was staring at him intently, the empty glass held in midair.

Daniel didn't have a word for what he'd become. The vision had shaken him deeply and he was enormously relieved, he discovered, that Jack had brought him here. He had not wanted to go home alone. He'd had to force himself that evening to leave SGC, leave the work he'd set for himself of finishing the translation of 400 pages of Ancient from the planet Malachi'd studied, a task which was just hard enough for his present mood, and very soothing, all at the same time -- the Latin-like language was quite beautiful. Finally he had told himself to just give it a rest and go home. Then he'd been relieved, and chagrined at his relief, to see Jack leaning on his car. One of the reasons the Ancients' Latin was so soothing was because immersing himself in it also made him feel suffused with Jack. Daniel knew that. He realized they were still staring at each other. Jack's face was carefully blank.

Jack repeated, "A soft spot."

Daniel shook his head, a small confused gesture, feeling like a deer in the headlights. Jack waited, and Daniel still said nothing, and Jack set down his glass and stepped over to Daniel and hugged him. Daniel slowly hugged him back. It was hard not to give in to the relief.

"A soft spot," Jack said again, thoughtfully.

"Like soft in my head," Daniel muttered, but he was tightening his arms and laying his head on Jack's shoulder. They stood there, quiet. Jack shifted with a creak of leather.

"It wasn't real, Daniel."

"I know."

"It wasn't real."

"This is real."

"Yeah."

They pulled apart, but didn't let go, holding on to each other's arms. It felt oddly formal.

"I should ..." Daniel twitched his head, indicating the spare room, bed, sleep, putting an end to this, it was exhausting, it was dangerous, it made him want to bury his face in the leather smell of Jack's shoulder; press his cheek into that muscle and his lips against Jack's neck. He looked at Jack's hand where it gripped his forearm. "...Sleep," he finished helplessly. He dragged his gaze up, and it stopped at Jack's mouth.

"Yeah," Jack said, and let go. Daniel watched him swallow, and then Daniel turned on his heel and went down the hall.

He toed off his shoes and set his glasses on the nightstand and lay down on his back, atop the bedspread, listening to Jack's going-to-bed noises, remembering why he so seldom let himself crash over here any more. The silent, high-ceilinged house let him hear everything, even the rustle of the bed clothes as Jack got comfortable. Then silence.

"Not real, Daniel," Jack said, quietly, as if sure Daniel could hear him.

Daniel smiled, and closed his eyes.

end.


End file.
